'Racist Comments'

On behalf of the members of the Westside Chapter of the Mexican-American Political Assn. (MAPA), we are writing to express our absolute shock and outrage at former Culver City Mayor Steven Gourley's racist and inflammatory comments at his "State of the City" address (Times, March 28).

In this day and age, it is socially and politically irresponsible for an elected official representing such a culturally diverse city to make such shortsighted and bigoted remarks. He carelessly and unjustly targeted and blamed members of the Latino community for the increase in many of the city's problems--rise in crimes, excess population, exploitation of the economy, etc. He then went on to predict that "driven by poverty into crime," this group would "steal as much from Culver City as they do from L.A."

Xenophobic statements such as these are divisive to a multicultural community and do nothing more than promote racism. The members of MAPA call on Gourley to retract his unfounded remarks and issue a public apology to the Latino community. Until he does, he can consider his "good relations with the Latino community" to be over.